When should I start studying for the July 2022 bar exams?

You’ve just finished your last round of law schools exams. You’re feeling relieved but also exhausted — three years of law school in the midst of a global pandemic will take its toll on anyone. But now comes the hard part. Even though you’re feeling burnt out, the July 2022 bar exam study materials have now found their way to your inbox. There’s literally thousands of pages to slog through but, to be frank, you just don’t have the mental energy to deal with them right now. Is that a problem?

Absolutely not. In fact, you should take some time off before you begin to study again, particularly now that the Law Society has pushed back the dates of the Summer 2022 bar exams from June to July.

But exactly how much time should you take off? Like many things in law, “it depends”. If you think you’re capable of reading 70-100 pages of bar exam materials per day, then you’ll only need to dedicate roughly 6 weeks in total for both the barrister and solicitor exams. However, bear in mind that the vast majority of students find the bar exam materials to be extremely dry and, as a result, struggle to make it through 70-100 pages each day. If you think this might apply to you, then you’ll need to budget more time for your bar prep. Also, remember that you’re going to want to take days off in the course of your studying (studying 24 hours/day, 7 days per week is a recipe for burn out) and you might have other summer plans (vacations, weddings, etc.) that reduce the amount of time you have available for studying.

As a general rule, however, dedicating at least 3 weeks for each exam should be sufficient for your bar prep. Some students budget more time, while others budget less, but 3 weeks per exam seems to be the consensus. Regardless, of how much time you end up dedicating to your bar prep, it is absolutely critical that you undertake at least one practice test before test day. Reading the materials is important (and you should do this!), but you do not want to be flipping through them in a test environment for the very first time on the actual test day. For some advice on how to take a practice test, see our previous blog post.